WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party called two recent reports on police violence evidence of systematic abuses of power by police departments, especially in their treatment of young black and brown men and of people who engage in public protest.

Green candidates and leaders said the reports are supported by numerous reports of incidents in which police used deadly force against people of color, immigrants, and nonviolent protesters.

"The police abuses taking place in many cities and states require independent investigation by citizens' review boards, followed by prosecution," said Don Cook, Green Party candidate for Congress in Texas' 22nd District and Harris County Green Party liason with the National Black United Front, New Black Panthers, and others in the Black Justice Tuesday Coalition. "When such crimes go unpunished, police believe they have a license to commit further crimes. Unless these patterns of crime and impunity change, we can consider ourselves to be living in a police state. This is not law, security, or order. It's the opposite of law, security, and order."

Greens also cited recent shootings and violent reprisals by police against Latino residents in Anaheim, California, in the wake of the killing of Manuel Diaz by an officer, as well as out-of-control border patrols, humiliating stop-and-frisk policies that usually target young people of color (most famously in New York City, with Mayor Bloomberg's support), police harassment and arrest of bystanders and citizens attempting to record police actions on cell phones and cameras, and the use of "Homeland Security" resources for civilian police work.

"What we need in our Latino communities is support for the people who live there -- support for hard working families regardless of their immigration status. We don't need taxpayer-funded violence which only serves to promote more violence. We need investment in our communities, not violations of the human rights of Latinos and African Americans," said Isabel Espinal of the Green Party's Latino Caucus (http://gp.org/latino).

Green Party leaders noted that President Obama has used the drug war as a job stimulus program, increasing funding for President Reagan's Byrne program and reinstating President Clinton's COPS program. These programs channel millions in federal funding to local police forces who wage the drug war locally by targeting communities of color, despite the fact that the majority of US drug users and dealers are white (See 'The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness', book by Michelle Alexander, http://www.newjimcrow.com).

"The latest surges in police abuses can't be separated from developments in law enforcement and incarceration in recent years. The US has the world's highest prison population, with mostly black, brown, and poor people locked up to feed a private prison industry that profits from filling up cells. The War on Drugs has destroyed families and communities by placing thousands of young people behind bars, very often on nonviolent offenses. Zero tolerance and mandatory sentencing have also expanded the Prison-Industrial Complex," said Ken Wolski, Green Candidate for the US Senate from New Jersey (https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfKenWolski).

"Stopping the failed and wasteful War on Drugs, ending the assaults on judicial discretion, and systematic remedies to end systematic police violence are taboo topics for Democratic and Republican politicians. Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney will discuss them," said Julia Willebrand, Green candidate for New York State Assembly in the 67th Assembly District (Upper Westside Manhattan).

Greens said that similar mindsets and policies in many police departments have placed Americans in danger for exercising their First Amendment rights to public protest, especially after police responses to the Occupy protests since Fall 2011. In many cases, police escaped punishment by hiding their names and shield numbers.

A report published by the Global Justice Clinic (NYU School of Law) and Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic (Fordham Law School) found "frequent alleged incidents of unnecessary and excessive police use of force against protesters, bystanders, journalists, and legal observers; constant obstructions of media freedoms, including arrests of journalists; unjustified and sometimes violent closure of public space, dispersal of peaceful assemblies, and corralling and trapping protesters en masse. Pervasive surveillance of peaceful political activity, arbitrary and selective rule enforcement, and restrictions on independent protest monitoring also raise serious concerns." ("Suppressing Protest: Human Rights Violations in the US Response to Occupy Wall Street," http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/403969-suppressing-protest.html)

"If violence occurs outside the Republican and Democratic conventions, it is reasonable to believe that the cause will be police, either by direct assault or provocation, used against peaceful protesters," said Howard Switzer, Green candidate for the US House in Tennessee (District 7) (http://howardswitzer.com/2012). "We seek guarantees against such tactics. The Green Party supports the right to such nonviolent protests and we anticipate that many Greens will join them. The federal government's training, aid, and assistance for civilian police operations, especially under the Homeland Security banner, means that the White House shares the responsibility for police abuses and that the abuses we're seeing should be considered an extension of larger security policy."